<p>So why does this article reference a study from Harvard rather than a study from a less well known university or the [data</a> from NCES](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=40]data”>Fast Facts: Undergraduate graduation rates (40)) for the degree completion rates? Seems like the prestige of Harvard does matter to the author, contrary to the argument in the article.</p>
<p>Scanned the blog and honestly, it’s a faulty premise–alma mater does matter. And mostly for academic rigor. Her list of “drop out role models” are mainly artists who probably were too busy doing their own original thing (and thinking) to worry about academics.<br>
Coursera, internet learning with classes from universities, is an interesting future of academics. But if you look at some of the highest level classes (free and open to anyone), they ain’t easy. Only someone with academic leanings is going to sign up for the work. Same is true with any university–they only accept students who are capable of the work–and their reputation grows. So alma mater matters.</p>
<p>For every Bill Gates there are 100,000 guys still living in their parents’ basement and delivering pizzas.</p>
<p>She’s over 30, from Dartmouth land, ed at UVA and Harvard. And, doubting the advantages of her own background, comparing with some high-tech 20-somethings? I would guess her own college affiliations got her that first job at the New Yorker.</p>
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<p>:rolleyes: Give me a freakin’ break. Unless you are an English PhD from Harvard (which the author, of course, is), no one EVER thought that you had to be familiar with Bloom, dialectical materialism or the OED to amount to anything in America.</p>
<p>She has two children. Maybe she should start reading CC.</p>
<p>This article sounds like the result of her own personal epiphany. I’m not sure many other people actually believe that going to a “good” residential college for four years is a guarantee of success in life. If you don’t value the experience for its own sake, don’t spend the money on it. Do something else. </p>
<p>Label-consciousness is part of human nature. It seems to me that the more one actually knows about the landscape of higher ed in this country, the less one is bowled over by the magic H-word. That’s not the same thing as claiming that where you attend is irrelevant.</p>
<p>“But at the same time it would be utterly meaningless—like just shy of pure gobbledygook—to say, ever, “But I went to Groton and Swarthmore! Cranbrook and Stanford! Darlington and Auburn! Crossroads and USC! St. Mary’s and Miami-Dade!”</p>
<p>Oh, honey. It always was meaningless to most grownups. This chick lived in a provincial bubble and is “surprised” that not everyone lived in the same bubble?</p>
<p>"seems to me that the more one actually knows about the landscape of higher ed in this country, the less one is bowled over by the magic H-word. "</p>
<p>That is the best comment ever on CC.</p>
<p>whats the “magic H-word”?</p>
<p>Harrrvaaarrdd</p>
<p>Ooh. I thought it was some inappropriate word. Lol</p>
<p>Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using CC</p>